punch list

back when i worked out on long island, which i now realize is some sort of librarian nirvana, we demolished our library and built a completely new building. this project was overseen by the library director, so when things would go wrong (which happened alot) you could come to this library director and say stuff like, "ohmygod! i don't know what to do! this [insert problem] is wrong!" and then she would contact people and figure out what had happened and then she would get back to you in a very timely fashion and tell you what she had found out and together you would solve said problem. amazing, right?
so today i came into library-in-the-hood and as usual there are no workers in sight. now, there are some problems here that need to be addressed, but for the most part we are about 1-2 days away from opening. but we've been 1-2 days away from opening for about a week and a half. why? because no one is in charge. people come and they point to stuff and say, "oh no that's not right" and then they leave without fixing anything. please indulge me as i go through our "punch list" of problems yet to be solved:

1) our media/ya shelving is now in pieces: they created a YA area in the front of the building. this is good. but they put an extremely tall shelving unit in front of it so you cannot see what is going on in the YA are. this is bad. so after we unpacked all of the YA books and the media items which go on these shelves we were told to take everything off so that they can take the shelves apart and make them shorter. so then repacked the YA books and media items, trying to keep them in order so that we can easily unpack them again. last saturday they were supposed to shorten the shelves. this of course did not happen. then one day in the middle of last week we came in to find them shelves in small pieces neatly tucked away in the periodical section (completely blocking all access to the periodicals). and there they have stayed untouched.

2) we have no chairs for adults - not in the computer area, nor in the seating area. adults like chairs. who doesn't like a good chair? especially when studying at a table or using a computer. chairs are the cornerstone of our civilization as far as i'm concerned.

3) the children's chairs are too small - i don't know if there's something in the water here or if living in the hood ages children more quickly, but the kids here are big. not obese big, but old looking big. i'd say every kid here seems at least 2-5 years older than they actually are. so even though children are typically small and need small chairs, that is not the case here. this is another case of why i don't like the branch system. someone from "central" has decided that children need small chairs and have ordered miniature chairs, despite the fact that they are useless here. had they asked we would have told them. but "central" knows best. that's what they're there for. so we have chairs that are so small they are actually shorter than the children's tables. you can push the entire chair under the tables. i spoke to a design person about this ... it went something like this:
me: the chairs are too small
designer: no they're not. they are the right size.
me: no, they are seriously too small. look (i push chair so that the entire chair is now standing completely underneath the table).
designer: maybe you're right.

4. we have no copy machine

5. we are missing a high-tech book drop system - they say we're getting this high-tech book drop conveyor belt system which will magically sort the books as they come in through the book drop. so far we just have a big empty space. maybe the big empty space will magically sort the books for us. wouldn't that be something?

6. supposedly, a wall needs to come down - i belive a wall needs to come down in order for the high tech book drop system to be put into action. this would take construction workers. or they could just give me a sledge hammer. i'll have a go at it. you know, for the good of the team.